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Some very good things came out of the weekend, though...
First, I got to spend a little time backstage with Jay, nerding out. Well, I nerded out. He worked on connections for the lights in his costumes, while we talked about the TRON 2 trailer and our deep affection for the first movie. Here's a short list of some of his thoughts on the things that we talked about...
Photo Credit to Mr.Bowden.
On The TRON 2 Trailer: "I am pleased that they've decided to maintain the design and the look from the first movie. They could work to update everything. They can do anything with CGI these days. So, it's reassuring to think that they will keep things true to the first movie."
On Jeff Bridges: "I've never met him actually. But from what I hear, he's no fan of the movie. "
On Bruce Boxleitner: "When I met him at a convention, I was wearing my uniform and he was the nicest person to me. He really takes care of the fans. I said to him, "I don't have Bruce Boxleitner's body" and he said, "At my age, I don't have Bruce Boxleitner's body, either!"
We also chatted about his meeting with Cindy Morgan. Jay showed me a pic of her on his iphone and she's still lovely, several years after the original film. She shot a short film with him called "The Tron Guy Movie" but he can't show it anywhere until he gets clearance from the filmmakers.
We also talked a bit about what it's like to be "The Tron Guy". I was really impressed by Jay's take on this whole thing. (Remember, he wasn't looking for fame or media attention, when he posted pics of his costume online. He was posting the pics to be helpful to anyone else who wanted to construct their own TRON costume. Everything else happened independantly of his intentions.) Here's how Jay looked at the whole thing, "You know, the way that I look at it, I got ahold of a tiger that I didn't see coming. I can try to fight it and bite back at it, but that will just make the tiger angry and if I let go and stop fighting him, he'll circle back and bite or kill me. I can do that. Or I can hang onto the tiger and ride it to wherever it's going to take me. I can't control where it's going to go and I can't anticipate what it will bring me to, I can just hang on tight to the tail and enjoy the ride." As example, he cited that he and I never would've met, if he wasn't "The Tron Guy". The Chicago trip was a good example of the sort of exciting fun stuff that came to him, because of what happened to him. I thought that was a lovely, wise way of handling all of that media attention, both negative and positive.
I think Jay had a really great time visiting us. As it worked out, Jay came in early enough to participate in "Don't Spit The Water" as a surprise guest. Steve was very welcoming of the whole idea and even used my introduction idea. (Which was very generous of him.) After the first two contestants were selected, Garret (as Mr.Moustache) announced that he couldn't select a third contestant, because "the contest-o-tron was down". Sasha made a big production of asking, "Whatever will we do?" Cue the TRON theme and out stepped Jay with the killer line, "My user and I will play." The audience goes apeshit. I watched them point and laugh and cheer and then lean over to explain who Jay was, to each other. It was a very cool moment.
Jay and the cast of "Don't Spit The Water".
Jay ended up having a great time in the show. He got in a few jokes, bantering with Sasha and the audience was behind him the whole time. (Literally, at some points. Whenever Jay got up and went back to the seat, the audience checked out his butt in his spandex and the girls all giggled and had a great time with it. To Jay's credit, the back of his costume is pretty well detailed. So there's lots to see there.)
Without a doubt, my favorite moments were when Jay interracted with the comedians. Extreme Dave, played by Jim Fath, ran up to Jay and said, "Cool costume, dude! I been in THE MATRIX too, man!" Huge laugh on that. Jay's face got bright red!
Kristen Studdard's "A Cat", though, stole the show. Her first tango with Jay was when she went up to him and checked him out a little bit and then spent her entire minute with him, batting his moustache with increased, cat-like furor. I laughed at that, until my sides ached.
Jay and "A Cat"
Kristen was also the only comedian to get Jay to spit the water. During her routine with him, she pawed at him a little bit and then curled up next to him and whispered something in his ear. His face INSTANTLY turned bright red and he did a huge spit-take, aiming roughly stage-left. (Hitting Jenny in the shoe. When she mentioned it later, I let her know that she's "been spat upon by an internet phenomenon".)
Later, I asked both Jay and Kristen what she said to get him to spit. His answer was, "I think she said, Those guys aren't expecting you to spit the water. If you do, you'll screw them in the point spread". Which is funny enough. I liked her answer more. Kristen says that she said, "Hey Tron Guy, I know that TRON is real, but if you don't spit the water, I'll claw your dick off." I giggled about that for the next twenty minutes.
Whatever she said, it worked...
Jay, "A Cat" and a Water That Has Been Spat.
Another killer line from the evening came from Sasha, who was instructing Jay NOT to hold the water in to the point where he might throw up onstage, at which point he said, "On second thought, go ahead and do that. That would be, like, the #1 video on YouTube for a week, man."
So true. So funny.
So, Jay's appearance at "Don't Spit The Water" was a big success. Huge, actually. It even showed up on The Bastion, Chicago's Comedy Website.
Things were a little quieter for our show, "The Sickest F***ing Stories I Ever Heard". We had a smaller house. About 25 people, total, for the show. Although, Santa and Harry Potter were pretty quiet during the show, I told a few stories and so did Ben. And even Jay got up and told a few gut-busters of his own...
Jay shows the audience how Mike Tyson grabbed him in the Christmas of 2004.
Afterwards, Jay kindly took pictures with anyone who wanted one. He was a very gracious guest of the show. I thanked him for flying in for our show (in his own plane, no less). Jay quietly changed into his street clothes and when I left him, he was standing on Halsted St, chatting with Pad and Jady. He had a great time visiting us and the whole night was really magical. At one point, during "Don't Spit", Chip Aucoin leaned over to me and said, "Wow, man. This is really, really pretty cool." And he was right.
Cheers,
Mr.B
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